use your moodle

Free, open-source course management system Moodle is getting attention, as well it should if it’s what it seems to be: cost-effective (nothing is ever really free, your time and your staff’s time is worth money), reliable (the site boasts 300,000 registered users and over 40,000 registered courses, with an impressive growth curve), and built for serious online learning (they talk a lot about sound pedagogical principles, if you’re into that sort of thing).

I love finding online tools that nonprofits can use to make their lives easier and to advance their missions, and this certainly seems to qualify. Besides the obvious, intended application of delivering pedagogical services online to your constituents (which maybe isn’t exactly your bag), why else might Moodle make your toes curl?

You could:

Record basic training modules for new staff, cutting down how much time it takes senior staff to train new hires on basic office procedures

Reinforce good habits, record best practices, and reduce the loss of institutional knowledge, by having staff create short How-To-Be-Me courses

Engage your key constituents by helping them create content about how to be a better organizer/activist/volunteer for your cause

Deliver workshops and classes asynchronously to a geographically dispersed area

Learn Greek! (I was a Greek minor in college, and I fantasize about brushing up my translation skills and getting back into Homer — or even better, this guy)

As Web Worker Daily puts it:

Think of it as online communities built around actually learning how to do something.

In your online communities, what are you there to actually do?

If you are trying to build community online, what is it you are offering that people can actually do in your online world?

2 responses to “use your moodle”

I used Moodle with a class I took in Jan-Feb 2008, and I must say that Moodle is one of the reasons I stopped taking those classes.

I thought it was very poorly designed, completely non-intuitive, and totally unable to organize information well. I found myself constantly frustrated because I would be inundated with emails and unable to find appropriate data when I needed it…

Not to be such a downer, but I was quite upset with the administrators and with Moodle…of course, I was paying a lot (in my opinion).

Thanks so much for sharing your experience… sorry it was a negative one. What a shame — I know how frustrating it can be to use difficult software and feel you’re getting little support. Is there another option that you’ve had a good experience with that you would recommend as an alternative?